Telescope Array search for EeV photons Yana Zhezher (on behalf of - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Telescope Array search for EeV photons Yana Zhezher (on behalf of Mikhail Kuznetsov), Oleg Kalashev and Grigory Rubtsov for the Telescope Array collaboration ICRR, Univ. of Tokyo & INR RAS TAUP-2019 11 September 2019 Supported by Russian Science Foundation Y. Zhezher for the Telescope Array collaboration Search for photons with TA SD 1

◮ Photon search with the TA SD ◮ Multivariate analysis technique Blind search for point sources of photons ◮ based on Abbasi et al., arXiv:1904.00300 Target search for photons from dwarf galaxies ◮

Data and Monte-Carlo sets ◮ Data collected by TA surface detector for the 9 years: 2008-05-11 — 2017-05-10 ◮ p and γ Monte-Carlo sets with CORSIKA and dethinning Stokes et al, Astropart.Phys.35:759,2012 Cuts for both data and MC: ◮ 7 or more detectors triggered ◮ core distance to array boundary is larger than 1200m ◮ χ 2 / d.o.f. < 5 ◮ θ < 60 ◦ ◮ E γ > 10 18 eV ( E γ is estimated with photon Monte-Carlo) ◮ remove events coincident with lightnings (lightning events mimics γ -induced events) 52362 events after cuts Y. Zhezher for the Telescope Array collaboration Search for photons with TA SD 3

γ -induced EAS p -induced EAS γ 20080514 32259.903427 (17.13, 23.44) ndet=9 angles: 50.6, 128.6 S800=12.9 γ 20080607 120538.696262 (21.72, 7.06) ndet=9 angles: 47.1, 93.5 S800=13.6 40 upper 30 lower upper 35 lower 25 30 25 20 20 15 15 10 10 5 5 0 0 -5 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 -5 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 Time, µ s Time, µ s Photon-induced showers: ◮ arrive younger ◮ contain less muons ◮ multiple SD observables affected: front curvature, Area-over-peak, χ 2 / d . o . f . , etc.

Photon search: list of relevant SD observables 1. Linsley front curvature parameter, a ; 2. Area-over-peak (AoP) of the signal at 1200 m; Pierre Auger Collaboration, Phys.Rev.Lett. 100 (2008) 211101 3. AoP LDF slope parameter; 4. Number of detectors hit; 5. N. of detectors excluded from the fit of the shower front; 6. χ 2 / d . o . f . ; 7. S b = � S i × r b parameter for b = 3 and b = 4 . 5; Ros, Supanitsky, Medina-Tanco et al. Astropart.Phys. 47 (2013) 10 8. The sum of signals of all detectors of the event; 9. Asymmetry of signal at upper and lower layers of detectors; 10. Total n. of peaks within all FADC traces; 11. N. of peaks for the detector with the largest signal; 12. N. of peaks present in the upper layer and not in lower; 13. N. of peaks present in the lower layer and not in upper; Y. Zhezher for the Telescope Array collaboration Search for photons with TA SD 5

Machine learning for multivariate analysis. ◮ The Boosted Decision Trees (BDT) technique is used to build p - γ classifier based on multiple observables. Telescope Array, Astropart. Phys. 110, 8 (2019); PRD 99, 022002 (2019) ◮ root::TMVA is used as a stable implementation. PoS ACAT 040 (2007), arXiv:physics/0703039 ◮ BDT is trained with Monte-Carlo sets: γ (signal) and p (background)* ◮ BDT classifier is used to convert the set of observables of each event to a number ξ ∈ [ − 1 : 1 ] ◮ ξ is available for one-dimensional analysis. * MC set is split into 3 equal parts: (I) for training the classifier, (II) for ξ -cut optimization, (III) for exposure ( γ ) and background ( p ) estimate.

Distribution of MVA estimator ξ for data and MC log(E log(E /eV)>18.0 /eV)>18.0 log(E log(E /eV)>18.5 /eV)>18.5 γ γ γ γ 4 10 4 10 gamma MC gamma MC proton MC proton MC 10 3 3 10 data data 10 2 10 2 10 10 1 1 -1 -1 10 10 -1 -0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 -1 -0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 ξ ξ log(E log(E /eV)>19.0 /eV)>19.0 log(E log(E /eV)>19.5 /eV)>19.5 γ γ γ γ gamma MC gamma MC 3 10 proton MC proton MC 2 10 data data 2 10 10 10 1 1 10 -1 10 -1 -1 -0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 -1 -0.8 -0.6 -0.4 -0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 ξ ξ data proton MC gamma MC

Search for point sources of photons: motivation Diffuse photon search with the TA SD: [TA], Astropart.Phys. 110 (2019) 8-14 The way to improve the photon search sensitivity: Hadron background is highly isotropic ⇓ Assume that photons are emitted by point source ⇓ In angular vicinity of the source the photon/hadron ratio would be larger than in full TA field of view ⇓ Easier to separate photons from hadrons! Bonus! Specific photon source hypotheses could be tested by search in certain directions stacked ◮ Dwarf spheroidal galaxies (heavy DM decay hypothesis) Y. Zhezher for the Telescope Array collaboration Search for photons with TA SD 8

Search for point sources of photons: motivation Diffuse photon search with the TA SD: [TA], Astropart.Phys. 110 (2019) 8-14 The way to improve the photon search sensitivity: Hadron background is highly isotropic ⇓ Assume that photons are emitted by point source ⇓ In angular vicinity of the source the photon/hadron ratio would be larger than in full TA field of view ⇓ Easier to separate photons from hadrons! Bonus! Specific photon source hypotheses could be tested by search in certain directions stacked ◮ Dwarf spheroidal galaxies (heavy DM decay hypothesis) Y. Zhezher for the Telescope Array collaboration Search for photons with TA SD 9

Features of γ point sources search: blind search ◮ Independent search for γ in each skymap direction ◮ The angular size of the each search region is equal to the γ angular resolution: 10 18 . 0 10 18 . 5 10 19 . 0 10 19 . 5 10 20 . 0 E γ ≥ , eV 3 . 00 ◦ 2 . 92 ◦ 2 . 64 ◦ 2 . 21 ◦ 2 . 06 ◦ ang.res. ◮ The skymap is pixelized into 12288 directions with HEALPix (7868 in TA field of view) Optimisation of MVA-cut for γ flux upper-limit: ◮ Assume the flux consists of protons only (null hypothesis): F total = F p ◮ Optimize the ξ -cut separately for the best upper-limit in each direction using MC p and MC γ ◮ E − 2 γ -spectrum is assumed Y. Zhezher for the Telescope Array collaboration Search for photons with TA SD 10

Results: point-source photon flux upper-limits Photon flux upper-limit, E > 1 EeV +90° 95% C.L. 90° 0° 270° 180° -90° km 2 yr 1 0 0.242201 � F γ � ≤ , km − 2 yr − 1 E γ ≥ , eV 10 18 . 0 0.094 10 18 . 5 0.029 10 19 . 0 0.010 10 19 . 5 0.0071 10 20 . 0 0.0058 Pierre Auger: � F γ � ≤ 0 . 035 km − 2 yr − 1 (1 ◦ ang.res., 10 17 . 3 ≤ E ≤ 10 18 . 5 eV ) A. Aab et al. ApJ 789, 160 (2014) Y. Zhezher for the Telescope Array collaboration Search for photons with TA SD 11

Results: point-source photon flux upper-limits 95% C.L. Photon flux upper-limit, E > 3.16 EeV Photon flux upper-limit, E > 10 EeV +90° +90° 90° 0° 270° 180° 90° 0° 270° 180° -90° -90° 0 km 2 yr 1 0.071541 0 km 2 yr 1 0.029244 Photon flux upper-limit, E > 31.6 EeV Photon flux upper-limit, E > 100 EeV +90° +90° 90° 0° 270° 180° 90° 0° 270° 180° -90° -90° km 2 yr 1 km 2 yr 1 0 0.01895 0 0.01406 The results for all points are available in table form with paper Abbasi et al., arXiv:1904.00300 It can be used to constrain models of UHECR sources.

Results: photon excesses significance Excess significance, E > 1 EeV +90° 90° 0° 270° 180° -90° 0 2.722 E γ ≥ , eV max. γ signif. (pre-trial) 10 18 . 0 2 . 72 σ 10 18 . 5 2 . 71 σ 10 19 . 0 2 . 89 σ 10 19 . 5 2 . 76 σ 10 20 . 0 3 . 43 σ The excesses are insignificant, given the large number of trials, no evidence for the photon signal on the current level of sensitivity.

Results: photon excess significance Excess significance, E > 3.16 EeV Excess significance, E > 10 EeV +90° +90° 90° 0° 270° 180° 90° 0° 270° 180° -90° -90° 0 2.707 0 2.89 Excess significance, E > 31.6 EeV Excess significance, E > 100 EeV +90° +90° 90° 0° 270° 180° 90° 0° 270° 180° -90° -90° 0 2.759 0 3.425 The largest pre-trial excess is 3 . 43 σ for E γ ≥ 10 20 . 0 eV located at { α = 155 . 3 ◦ , δ = 60 . 4 ◦ }

Target search for photons from dwarf galaxies Probe for the possible decay of heavy dark matter (HDM) ◮ HDM decay produce significant amount of photons in any model M. Kachelriess et al., PRD 98, 083016 (2018) ◮ DM is abundant in dwarf galaxies (Galactic Center is outside the TA field of view) ◮ Target source set: 21 dwarf galaxies — satellites of Milky Way V. Bonnivard et al., MNRAS 453 (2015), 849 ◮ Search for γ in stacked skymap pixels of dwarf galaxies (pixel size = γ ang.res. ) Results No evidence for photon signal ( N cand . = 0 at all energies) γ 10 18 . 0 10 18 . 5 10 19 . 0 10 19 . 5 10 20 . 0 E γ , eV F γ UL , km − 2 yr − 1 0.15 0.057 0.014 0.0076 0.0052 These results can be used to constrain HDM models Y. Zhezher for the Telescope Array collaboration Search for photons with TA SD 15